President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi in a meeting in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe on Friday agreed to resolve the natural gas issue between the countries, the website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry reports.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of the summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Turkmen President attended the summit as an honored guest.
Ebrahim Raisi called the brotherly and friendly relations between Tehran and Ashgabat beyond those of neighbors. He said “Tehran and Ashgabat have good capacities to strengthen interactions and deepen bilateral relations."
President Raisi also stated that the “energy exchange and increasing the volume of exchanges and transit of goods between the two countries are among the potential areas for strengthening cooperation between Iran and Turkmenistan".
Expressing satisfaction with his country's friendly relations with Iran, the Turkmen Leader said "activating transit capacities between Iran and Turkmenistan will play a significant role in improving the level of economic and trade interactions between the two countries."
In January 1, 2017, Turkmenistan has stopped gas exports to Iran due to debt of the Iranian company for the previous gas supplies. After lengthy negotiations, the parties did not come to a solution on the issue of payments and the Turkmen Gas State Concern was forced to file a claim with the ICC International Court of Arbitration (ICA).
In 2020, the ICA announced a verdict over the Iranian-Turkmen gas dispute in favor of Turkmenistan.
